Questions and reports related to Sierra Nevada current and forecast conditions, as well as general precautions and safety information. Trail conditions, fire/smoke reports, mosquito reports, weather and snow conditions, stream crossing information, and more.

Today 7/28, Mammoth Lakes and 395N past Bridgeport to Rte 108 (Sonora Pass turnoff) was extremely smokey! Visibility was poor. I've lived in Mammoth for 13 years and this is some of the worst smoke I've ever seen. We wanted to go for a hike and we thought we could get out of the smoke by going north. We were surprised that the conditions weren't much better than Mammoth. Was wondering how conditions are in the Whitney Zone?

SHORT TERM...SMOKE FROM THE ASPEN FIRE IN FRESNO COUNTY HAS WORSENED VISIBILITYAND AIR QUALITY AROUND MAMMOTH LAKES AGAIN TONIGHT BASED ON WEBCAMERA IMAGES AND SPOTTER REPORTS. KMMH DROPPED TO 5 SM AND HASREPORTED CEILINGS AROUND 3000-3500 FT AGL DUE TO THIS SMOKE. THISFIRE IS LIKELY TO BURN ACTIVELY AGAIN TODAY AND POSSIBLY FOR AFEW MORE DAYS, WITH SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT CONTINUING TO SEND SMOKEOVER SIMILAR LOCATIONS. WILL CARRY MENTION OF SMOKE SOUTH OF MONOLAKE INTO TUESDAY NIGHT FOR NOW.

Smoke was noticeably worse in the Lewis creek canyon in SE Yosemite than on the Tuolumne side Sunday the 28th. Couldn't see the Clark range at all from Lake Bernice/Vogelsang, and it smelled noticeably smokey.

It seem like there are a lot more active fires than was thought, 10 in Kings Canyon alone though small in sizes. Click on "Map Legend" tab and zoom in to see what areas along the Sierra Nevada are effected.http://sierrafire.cr.usgs.gov/

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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member:http://reconn.org

Another good resource for viewing the smoke distribution from this or any other fire is the NOAA SSD satellite smoke analysis at:http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htmUse the controls on the left side to zoom in and then click the layers you want on the right. Dense smoke is purple-brown, moderately dense is yellow, and thin smoke is green.

Wildfire smoke is just about the worst thing for a backpacking trip, in my opinion. Sort of the opposite of what we go there for - to get away from civilization and pollution. We were planning a backpack in southeastern Yosemite next week, but are going to head further north instead because of this Aspen Fire.